Latina Feminist Poets by Linda Crews-Lerma
Summary Latina feminist poets encompass women who have their roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, and South America. A presentation of Latina feminist poets that have impacted the poetry scene will be exhibited beginning with the "first wave" of Latina feminist poets from the 1970s to the 1990s. The first wave include such greats as Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Julia Alvarez, and Sandra Cisneros. The "first wave" will then be contrasted with the "new generation" of Latina feminist poets from the 2000s to the present. The poets of the "new generation" include Naomi Ayala, Brenda Cardenas, Laurie Ann Guerrero, and Rosa Alcala. The poetry and issues of each poet will be highlighted. The Importance of Latina Feminist Poetry Chicana feminism was born of a natural consequence of the overall Chicano struggle for justice, equality, and freedom. As the Chicano movement grew in the 1960s, Chicanas soon realized that the oppression they suffered was even more complex than that of their Chicano brothers. Sexual oppression was as real as racial and ethnic oppression and that internal oppression (within the Chicano community or la Raza itself) could exist along with external oppression in the dominant society ( Wikipedia). Many Chicanos felt that these Chicana feminists who wanted to speak out and be heard were "vendidas or women's libbers," and the Chicano thought of feminism as the "Anglo trick to divide the Chicano movement." There were two distinct groups that arose from the Chicana Feminist movement: The Loyalists who felt that it was unnecessary to have both a Chicano and a Chicana movemeent, that oppression was caused by the Anglo society and not from the men in Chicano society. And the Feminists who felt differently. They argued that feminists are not traitors but active agents in the struggle for human liberation who follow ideals and examples set down by the feminist forebearers (Miranoe). From this movement comes the first wave of Latina feminist poets. The voice of each Latina feminist poet embodies not only self but community as well. While preserving the traditions of a culture that stresses familial ties, these women address the social and the political barriers placed upon them in addition to exploring language and aesthetic (Aragon). The Latina voice is a powerful force that knows no borders offering valuable insights to identity, place, and language. The Latina voice gives a voice to all women who have been oppressed for their differences, or for just being a woman. The Poets "Feminism is not a dirty word. It does not mean you hate men, it does not mean you hate girls that have nice legs and a tan, and it does not mean you are a bitch or a dyke, it means that you believe in equality." - Kate Nash" 'Gloria Anzaldua (1942-2004)' "A woman who writes has power, and a woman with power is feared." - Gloria E. Anzaldua Anzaldua's "New Mestiza" lives with the many inconsistencies of the borderlands and challenges the world with her multifold identity: American, Mexican, mestiza, and Chicana; lesbian, feminist, intellectual, and multi-lingual. Her poetry exposes colonial exploitation, counters oppression, and formulates a new identity that does not submit to traditional expectations (Ybarra 175). This is shown in the first stanza of the following poem: To live in the Borderlands means you (by Gloria Anzaldua) are neither hispana india negra espanola ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half-breed caught in the crossfire between camps while carrying all five races on your back not knowing which side to turn to, run from. (216) Ana Castillo (1953 - ?) "I'm obviously an American citizen. My parents are American citizens. But I'm not looked at as an American." - Ana Castillo "Human sexuality has been regulated and shaped by men to serve men's needs." "For things to have vaule in a man's world, they are given the role of commodities. Among man's oldest and most constant commodity is woman." Ana Castillo is the author of four collections of poetry and has become one of the most outspoken voices for the "colonized woman" and has taken positions opposing the suppression of "brown women" in an elitist, racist society that generally acknowledges race relations as pertaining only to black and white divisions. She coined the term "xicanisma" - a term she created in order to give name to the struggles of "brown women" in the racially polarized U.S. Castillo believes that the greater issues both globally and in America revolve around class, as a result she is more concerned "with the poor of the earth" (Milligan 19). Julia Alvarez (1950 -?) "Everyone needs a strong sense of self. It is our base of operations for everything we do in life." Julia Alvarez examines repeatedly the issues of language and cultural identity in her poetry. She once questioned whether she could belong to American literature because English was her second language. In her lyrical poetry, Alvarez celebrates ethnic identity and bilingualism in topics as divergent as housework and female identity in the "Housekeeping" poems. Her preoccupation with language and identity embodies an intergral and omnipresent component of her poetry (Wall 131). Sandra Cisneros ( 1954 - ?) One of the foremost Chicana poets and a master at the craft, Sandra Cisneros' poetry collection illustrates the development of a Chicana subject whose body is shaped by social, cultural, and spatial forces. In Cisneros' poems, the barrio embodies those social forces that limit possibilities for education, health care, and basic safety. These forces contain the raced, sexed, and classed Chicana body (Estill 25-28). Naomi Ayala (1964 - ?) Poet, educator, and community activist, Naomi Ayala's poems explore wide-ranging themes from the city streets to the introspective solace of the woods. Her lyrics deconstruct the political world of man and offer hope through spiritual intimacy while bridging the gap between the two with words of ecological intensity. Plus, her deep connections with the working class and her love of the land are prominent in her poetry (Turner). Brenda Cardenas Brenda Cardenas writes in free verse in a blend of English and Spanish which reflects her interest in inter-connection that is political, cultural, and spiritual. For her, poetry involves an exploration of the worlds around, within, and outside; it's about wandering and questioning to uncover some facet that leads to an entirely new set of mysteries and openings. Poetry is about learning new ways to listen, see and navigate for multiple understandings ( Poetry Society). Laurie Ann Guerrero A poet whose poems are interested in language as a method of recording creation and destruction (Guerrero). Guerrero's poetry is both universal and local that is a rich multiplicity of meanings and plurality of voices; it centers around the lives and stories of hard-working women in a place that lies in between worlds. She writes about womanhood, motherhood, family, excavating and recovering some of the histories around her (Poetry Center). Rosa Alcala As a poet, Rosa Alcala is interested in the ways class intersects with other markers of identity such as language, money, labor, gender, and poverty. She is in the process of writing a long piece about Occupy Wall Street as a result of having had the experience firsthand of living as a Wall Street office temp for many years. Through this experience, she became particularly interested in the ways women - and women's bodies - were framed, exploited, and portrayed during the movement ( Poetry Society). Works Cited Acevedo, Lourdes. "Imaginate 1: Ana Castillo." Women Writers. 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. "An Evening with Sandra Cisneros." Stanford University Event Calendar. 20 April 2006. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. "Ana Castillo at X Festival Int'l de Poesia, Granada, Nicaragua Feb. 17-22." Ana Castillo. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 4th ed. San Francisco: aunt lute, 2012. Print. Aragon, Francisco. ed. Introduction. The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry. Tucson: U of Arizona Press, 2007. Print. "Books: Poetry: The Woman I Kept to Myself." Julia Alvarez. 18 Nov. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. "Brenda Cardenas." Poetry Society of America. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. Contreras, Esmeralda. "Sandra Cisneros." Prezi. 6 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. Estill, Adriana. "Building the Chicana Body in Sandra Cisneros' 'My Wicked Wicked Ways.'" Rocky '' Mountain Review of Language and Literature 56.2 (2002): 25-43. ''JSTOR. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. Guerrero, Laurie Ann. "Laurie Ann Guerrero." ''2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. "Julia Alvarez Links." ''Catskill Secondary Library Media Center. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. 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ChickenBones: A Journal. 9 April 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. Wall, Catharine E. "Bilingualism and Identity in Julia Alvarez's Poem 'Bilingual Sestina.'" MELUS 28.4 (2003): 125-143. JSTOR. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. Wikipedia Contributors. "Chicana Feminism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. Ybarra, Priscilla Solis. "Borderlands as Bioregion: Jovita Gonzalez, Gloria Anzaldua, and the Twenthieth- Century Ecological Revolution in the Rio Grande Valley." ''MELUS 34.2 (2009): 175-189. Project '' Muse''. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.